Bloodletting
by Indarae
Summary: An alternate ending for an old episode ("Blood Fever" -don't worry, you needn't have seen it to understand the plot.) 6 year old composition, so be kind.


Disclaimer: The whole kit and caboodle is Paramount's  
  
A/N: Written during the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager, I think? Or was it the fifth... anyways, this is an alternate ending to an episode. I can't remember the name of the blasted thing, it's been so long. Written in 8th grade. 6 years ago, so please, be kind!  
  
Bloodletting  
  
"Vorick, I really don't have time for this," B'Elanna insisted as she ripped the PADD out of his hand. She climbed up to a walkway running in front of the dilithium chamber on the second level of Engineering. "If you have a personal question, it can wait until after my shift is over."  
  
"But Lieutenant Torres, this is very important," the Vulcan ensign assured her, seeming anxious.  
  
Torres sighed and tapped several buttons on the console in front of her. Vorick followed her up onto the catwalk. "Will the ship blow up if you wait?" she queried.  
  
"Well, no," Vorick said, actually flustered. "But I -"  
  
"Is it in any way concerned with the welfare of this ship?" she demanded.  
  
"No, but if you'll just listen to me, Lieutenant -"  
  
"No," B'Elanna said forcefully. "You listen to me, Ensign. If you are not about to keel over and die before my eyes, I want you down in front of your station. Now!" B'Elanna's yells were beggining to attract attention from the engineers working below. That fact made her all the more angry - Vorick was affecting the crew's ability to work. It had to stop.  
  
"Lieutenant," Vorick began.  
  
The Chief Engineer cut him off with a growl. "If you don't go down to your station RIGHT NOW, I will report you to the Captain for insubordination!" Vorick started to leave, but turned again, mouth open to protest. B'Elanna pointed down to his station. "It can wait ten minutes," she said, her voice deceptively quiet.  
  
"Yes, sir," the ensign said, turning to climb down to the main floor of Engineering.  
  
B'Elanna sighed in exasperation and pounded at the touchpads on the console. She had the feeling it was going to be a long day.  
  
  
  
She managed to avoid Vorick as she exited Engineering ten minutes later and headed to her quarters. B'Elanna was exhausted, despite the fact it had been a relatively slow day. Arguing with Vorick for close to twenty minutes had drained all of the energy out of her, and going to sleep early sounded like just the right treatment.  
  
B'Elanna found enough time for a hot shower and a change into her nightclothes before her door chimed. "I'm coming!" she called, glancing at the chronometer on her table. Sure enough, it was 1900 hours. Lieutenant Paris had just gotten off duty, and was probably standing outside of  
  
her door, hoping for a little female companionship before retiring to bed. B'Elanna was ready to happily refuse him as she opened the door.  
  
"Lieutenant Torres," Vorick said as he barged into her quarters, "you left before I could speak with you."  
  
"Oh," B'Elanna said simply. "It's you." She sighed. She'd been so looking forward to crushing Paris' pitiful heart. "What do you want?"  
  
"What I have to ask is very important, and . . . I . . ." Vorick was flustered, stuttering, and wasting B'Elanna's sleep time.  
  
"Then get on with it," Torres growled.  
  
Vorick seemed unaffected by her temper as he gathered his courage and continued. "By studying the available facts, I believe that you are my most logical choice for a mate."  
  
B'Elanna was shocked. "What?!" she managed to blurt out.  
  
"I wish for you to be my mate," Vorick repeated.  
  
Torres, incredibly flustered, began to make excuses. "Vorick, well . . . just look at us. You're Vulcan. I'm half-Klingon. Doesn't it seem a little . . . well, odd?"  
  
"I am aware of our differences. Those differences, in fact, make us an even more logical pair. My Vulcan ability to control emotions would be a significant advantage as a contrast to your quick temper." Vorick took a breath. "Also, since Klingons are so much stronger than Humans, it would be be dangerous for a Human to be involved in a physical relationship with you. I, on the other hand, am at least you equal in strength. During a physical encounter, I would be more likely to come out unscathed than a Human male. Also, a Vulcan and a Klingon are five point three two percent more likely to produce a genetically healthy offspring than a Klingon and a Human, based on the average fertility rate of a -"  
  
It had gone too far, B'Elanna decided. She jumped in, intentionally cutting off Vorick's final statement. "You seem to have been doing your homework, Vorick, but I'm afraid I'll have to say no," B'Elanna said graciously, beginning to back away from him.  
  
"B'Elanna, I must ask you to reconsider. After all, there are fewer than twenty currently available males on Voyager, compared with thirty-five available females, and I believe that -"  
  
"Vorick, the answer still stands. No." Her voice was quaking in fear as she backed away a little faster. He'd called her 'B'Elanna,' which he'd never done before.  
  
"B'Elanna, you aren't even considering my offer. I promise to make you very happy." He quickened his pace. She looked into his eyes, which were filled with a cold and calculating gleam.  
  
"I think it's time you left," she said pointing at the door and trying desperately to get control of the situation. Her voice was shaking badly, and she hoped she sounded more sure of herself than she actually felt.  
  
Vorick didn't answer. He grabbed her by the shoulders and planted his lips on hers.  
  
B'Elanna went stiff in his arms, shocked. She stood there dumbfounded for a moment before shoving him away roughly. "What are you doing?!" she demanded, the first thoughts which came to her mind.  
  
"You will be my mate," Vorick said simply.  
  
She stepped back quickly, and promptly hit the wall. No communicator, no escape. She was trapped.  
  
He roughly cupped her face in his hands. She tried to push him away, but couldn't. He was too strong, and she could feel his mind, first touching, and then overpowering her own. She could feel the need in Vorick's mind, and had no trouble realizing what was about to happen.  
  
Vorick's lips roughly touched her own once again.  
  
  
  
Everyone in Engineering knew there was something wrong with Lieutenant Torres. She'd crept into work fifteen minutes late, looking as if she'd seen a ghost. The Assistant Chief Engineer had seen B'Elanna in many moods, most of them in some way connected with anger or irritation. He'd never once seen her scared.  
  
"Um, Lieutenant, is there something wrong?" Carey asked, coming up behind her.  
  
He'd obviously startled her, as she seemed to jump ten feet in the air. "No, nothing wrong. Everything's fine, why would anything be wrong?" she stuttered.  
  
Lieutenant Carey knew better than that, of course. But he also knew better than to contradict the Chief Engineer. After all, he was already a lucky man. He'd startled her, and was still alive. He was treading on thin ice as it was.  
  
"Is there something you wanted?" B'Elanna asked, bringing him back to the present.  
  
Carey searched her face and saw the fear he'd heard in her shaky voice. He quickly answered her question, before she could become angry with him. "Yes. There's a problem with the sonic showers on deck three, and something is wrong with the safeties in holodeck two."  
  
"There's always something wrong with the holodecks," she grumbled, sounding much more like the engineer he was used to.  
  
Carey nearly sighed in relief, but managed to hold back his emotions and stick to business. "We were wondering which problem to concentrate our efforts on."  
  
B'Elanna frowned. "The captain's quarters are on deck three," she mused.  
  
Carey knew the comment was rhitorical, but he answered anyway. "Yes, sir."  
  
B'Elanna shot him a glance which seemed to say, 'I knew that, Carey. Shut up.' Luckily for Joe's ego, she kept her thoughts to herself. "Then concentrate on the showers." She stopped to think. "Maybe I should assign a team to each. What's your opinion, Carey?" she asked, seeming terribly unsure of herself.  
  
The lieutenant was absolutely shocked. Torres never asked for his ideas. Never. He was about to comment, might whatever higher powers there were have mercy on his soul, when Vorick entered Engineering.  
  
Lieutenant Torres tensed, not to fight, but to run. The expression on the Chief's face was enough to make Carey forget everything.  
  
"Go fix the showers!" she blurted before bolting from the room.  
  
"Where are you going?" Carey called.  
  
It was too late, B'Elanna was gone.  
  
  
  
Captain Janeway had become worried. For nearly a week, B'Elanna had been secluding herself in her quarters and acting in various abnormal ways. People were worried about her, especially Tom and Harry. They asked for answers, but Janeway had none.  
  
B'Elanna wasn't talking to anyone about her problems either. She was eternally on edge and extremely skittish. She was frightened to death of something. "But I'll be damned if I know what," Janeway had confided to Chakotay.  
  
"The other day in Engineering, Vorick came in while I was talking to her, and she ran out of the room."  
  
"She hasn't been eating in the mess hall, but very few of her replicator rations have been used."  
  
"She didn't report to Engineering until fifteen minutes after I called her."  
  
"B'Elanna and Tom and I were going to meet for dinner in the holodeck last Tuesday, but she never showed. She told me something about working late when I saw her the next morning, but Carey told me she hadn't been in Engineering that night."  
  
"I stopped by her quarters to ask if she was going to meet Harry and me for breakfast. She didn't answer until I'd buzzed three or four times, and when she opened the door she was pale and looked terrified."  
  
The reports of B'Elanna's depression causing problems kept mounting until Janeway couldn't ignore it anymore. She called B'Elanna and relieved her from duty.  
  
  
  
"You can't do that!" B'Elanna exclaimed.  
  
"I can," the captain informed her. "I think you need time to face whatever's bothering you. As soon as you're better, you can come back on duty."  
  
"But-"  
  
"Janeway out," the combadge told her, not allowing her to protest.  
  
B'Elanna banged her fist against the wall and let out a sob. Her only escape from the torment of her emotions was gone.  
  
Suddenly, the door chimed. She ignored it. It chimed twice, and then a third time. B'Elanna finally wiped her hand across her eyes. "Who is it?" she called.  
  
"It's Tom," a voice said from the other side of the door.  
  
She sat on her couch and smoothed her shirt before saying, "Come in." She hoped to hide the fact she'd been crying.  
  
When he entered, he found her sitting as straight as a cadet at graduation. The lights were low, but even in the dimness, he could see that she was pale and distraught. "What is it, Tom?"  
  
"What's wrong with you?" he demanded.  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied, her voice monotony itself.  
  
Tom narrowed his eyes. "Of course you don't. You've just suddenly started hiding from your friends in your quarters, and passing up away teams which you requested! We found a lot of gallacite down there, B'Elanna! And a Borg body! How could you miss something like that? What's wrong?" B'Elanna could hear the pain hidden in his voice. He really had missed her company.  
  
Something kept her from opening up to him, though. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just tired."  
  
"Bullshit," Tom countered, startling B'Elanna. She'd heard him swear before, but never at her!  
  
"I . . . Nothing's wrong!" she repeated, so flustered she was at a loss for words.  
  
"You were crying," he observed, noting the puffy red spots around her eyes. He sat next to her, the anger in his voice melting away completely. "Tell me."  
  
Slipping her arms around him, looking desperately for comfort, B'Elanna blurted out, "Vorick raped me," before bursting into sobs.  
  
Tom held her close, and rocked her back and forth, the shock of her words keeping him from speaking. The sobs wraked her body, which seemed so small and weak in his arms - not at all like B'Elanna. He sat there, holding her, until she fell asleep from exhaustion.  
  
  
  
Days later, the senior staff was crowded around the briefing room table. They were all together again, B'Elanna having begun the long road to recovery. Tom sat to one side of her, and she grasped his hand like a lifeline. Kes was on her other side, ready to help in case anything was to happen.  
  
"Vorick has been confined to quarters," Janeway informed her. "He won't trouble you again."  
  
B'Elanna could feel his presence at the back of her mind. She couldn't have disagreed with the captain's view of the situation more, but she kept that thought to herself. "It was a hormone imbalance, Captain. He couldn't help it," she said, her voice flat.  
  
Tuvok looked uncomfortable, for a Vulcan, but said, "There were ways for him to overcome the pon farr other than taking a mate. I do not think he tried any of them, therefore he was to blame."  
  
B'Elanna held her tongue, and squeezed Tom's hand. His grip tightened, comforting her. The rest of the meeting was a blur to her as she tried desperately to hold her emotions back. The captain finally dismissed them.  
  
"Are you coming?" Tom asked, jarring her back to reality.  
  
She glanced out the window, face impassive. "I'll meet you down in the Mess Hall in five minutes. I need to think for a minute."  
  
"Okay," Tom said, and patted her on the shoulder. He left her alone.  
  
B'Elanna stood and stared at the passing stars. Vorick's mind was there, always touching her. Somehow, that trauma had opened something in her mind. She could feel things she couldn't before. Harry's concern, Tuvok's embarrassment at Vorick's actions, Kes's compassion, and Tom's love. B'Elanna carefully hid her new senses from everyone. Something had happened, and she knew she'd been changed. And, as she looked out into the vastness of space, she knew somehow that everything had been changed. Whether it was a change for the good was still to be discovered.  
  
She turned and left the room in silence. 


End file.
